My adventures in genealogy and the stories of the people in my family tree. The tree includes my ancestors (themselves, their siblings, spouses and in-laws) and my husband's family. Primary names on my side include Roth, Fried, Grosser, Lieberman, Tepper, and Kandel, and on his side, Crime, Neumann, Gorman, Ferguson and McCann.

Blog Categories

Friday, June 16, 2017

Gone too Soon: Little Esther Grosser

Esther Grosser was the last child of my great grandparents, Elcon and Jennie Grosser. She was born on May 2, 1909, at the family's home at 814 S. 4th St in Philadelphia [1]. She was remembered by her older sister, my grandmother, as a happy child. By 1920, the family had moved to 344 South St, where Elcon had a retail store selling hardware items.[2]

814 S. 4th St Philadelphia, taken Nov 2015

According to my grandmother, On October 31, 1920, Halloween, Esther was in her costume. As it was dark, she reached to light the gas lamp, and her costume caught fire. The death certificate says her clothing caught fire, not specifying a costume, but agreed with the gas lamp lighting. She was burned over most of her body (flameproof childrens' clothing was not the norm at the time). She was taken to Pennsylvania Hospital, about one mile away, where she died on November 1, 1920 [3]. She was buried at Har Nebo Cemetery in Philadelphia on November 2, 1920[4].